Small town rocked over teen’s arrest in plot to kill Obama

Wednesday

Oct 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 29, 2008 at 2:26 AM

Paul Schlesselman was just an unknown teenager until his arrest Oct. 22 by federal agents, his name splashed in newspapers across the country accused of involvement in a Neo-Nazi plan to shoot or decapitate 88 black people and ultimately kill presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.

Michele Page

Paul Schlesselman was just an unknown teenager until his arrest Oct. 22 by federal agents, his name splashed in newspapers across the country accused of involvement in a Neo-Nazi plan to shoot or decapitate 88 black people and ultimately kill presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.

Schlesselman, 18, and his co-conspirator, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., are charged with possession of firearms, threats against a candidate running for president and conspiring to rob a gun store.

Schlesselman's name is now on the lips of virtually everyone in his hometown.

John Washington III of Helena was "shocked."

"Helena makes the news more than any small city I know of," he said Tuesday. "I don't know what Helena's gone to."

He said it was the "most pitiful and shameful news" involved with the small Arkansas Delta town.

Jerry Wendzell serves up burgers, fries and shakes from the Roadkill Grill on Cherry Street in downtown Helena and says the news doesn't bode well for his hometown, which has gained its fair share of national media attention this year with dogs running loose in the St. Francis National Forest and the American Civil Liberties Union protesting an adult curfew.

"Movie stars think any press is a good thing, positive or good. Not so for Helena, it seems," he said as patrons discussed the assassination plot.

"The media is taking to this issue like ambulance chasers and buzzards. They don't come to cover the blues festival or the Cougars or anything good," he said.

The Helena-West Helena Central High Cougars football team has earned high accolades this season, in large part thanks to Darius Winston, an All American pick who’s garnering national attention.

Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley said agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were in the city last week trying to gather information on Schlesselman.

"I didn't know him," Valley said.

Maj. Ronald Scott of the Helena-West Helena Police Department said neither the teen nor anyone in his family had a record on file at the department. Phillips County Sheriff Ronnie White also said his department had no record on Schlesselman or his family.

Jackie White said the news was terrible.

"I was devastated because this is a child from our town, and he is just beginning his life," she said.

She was also curious why someone wasn't aware of Schlesselman's activities.

"He was willing to die. He's sick. If he wasn't sick, he'd be fearful of death," White said, adding that Schlesselman was "mentally disturbed and needed help."

"We need to pray now. We must come together and not let this split our town. Divided we'll fall," she said.

Federal ATF agents arrested Schlesselman and Cowart in Crockett County, Tenn., on Oct. 22 and charged them in a federal complaint Friday. The two were being held without bond.

A criminal complaint charged Schlesselman and Cowart, described as Neo-Nazi skinheads, with illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun, conspiracy to rob a federal firearms licensee and making threats against a major candidate for office of president. The two apparently met about a month ago on the Internet through a mutual friend, authorities said.